Question

I have an array X of 10 elements. I would like to create a new array containing all the elements from X that begin at index 3 and ends in index 7. Sure I can easily write a loop that will do it for me but I would like to keep my code as clean as possible. Is there a method in C# that can do it for me?

Something like (pseudo code):

Array NewArray = oldArray.createNewArrayFromRange(int BeginIndex , int EndIndex)

Array.Copy doesn’t fit my needs. I need the items in the new array to be clones. Array.copy is just a C-Style memcpy equivalent, it’s not what I’m looking for.

Answer 1

You could add it as an extension method:

public static T[] SubArray<T>(this T[] data, int index, int length)
{
    T[] result = new T[length];
    Array.Copy(data, index, result, 0, length);
    return result;
}
static void Main()
{
    int[] data = { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 };
    int[] sub = data.SubArray(3, 4); // contains {3,4,5,6}
}

---

Update re cloning (which wasn’t obvious in the original question). If you really want a deep clone; something like:

public static T[] SubArrayDeepClone<T>(this T[] data, int index, int length)
{
    T[] arrCopy = new T[length];
    Array.Copy(data, index, arrCopy, 0, length);
    using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
    {
        var bf = new BinaryFormatter();
        bf.Serialize(ms, arrCopy);
        ms.Position = 0;
        return (T[])bf.Deserialize(ms);
    }
}

This does require the objects to be serializable ([Serializable] or ISerializable), though. You could easily substitute for any other serializer as appropriate – XmlSerializer, DataContractSerializer, protobuf-net, etc.

Note that deep clone is tricky without serialization; in particular, ICloneable is hard to trust in most cases.